AbeBooks book blog

Writer Joanna Walsh dubbed 2014 ‘the year of reading women’ when she launched the #readwomen2014 project late last year. The project encourages readers to read books written by female authors, or at the very least, learn about them, and the trend is spreading. American literary journal The Critical Flame will dedicate one year of its review coverage wholly to women writers and writers of color, beginning with their May 2014 issue. If ever there was a year to read women, this is it. Names like Eleanor Catton, Donna Tartt, Rachel Kushner, Jhumpa Lahiri and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have received a multitude of award nods for their latest works, while Hannah Kent, Anna Quindlen and Elizabeth Gilbert have dominated editors’ picks lists.

The recent surge in attention to women authors is nothing new for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction – they’ve been celebrating excellence in women’s writing since 1996. The expert judges have provided anyone looking for a female-focused reading list with a bumper selection. This year’s longlist features established authors like Margaret Atwood alongside debut novelists like Eimear McBride and M.J. Carter.

Without further adieu, the books of the 2014 Women’s Prize for Fiction longlist: